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Air France-KLM CEO backs Boeing 787 after Air India crash in Ahmedabad
The head of Air France-KLM voiced confidence in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as he expressed condolences to Air India and those affected by the deadly crash of a London-bound passenger jet in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
"We still have confidence in the airplane; we have 34 787s in the KLM fleet," Ben Smith, CEO of the Franco-Dutch airline group, told the Paris Air Forum conference on Friday, noting that the tragic accident is under investigation.
Speaking at the same event, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury also expressed condolences to families of victims of the crash, the worst aviation disaster in a decade.
India's air accident agency is investigating the cause of the crash which killed more than 240 people and safety experts have cautioned it is too early to speculate on the causes.
India's aviation regulator on Friday directed Air India to carry out safety inspections on its Boeing 787-8/9 fleet, an order showed on Friday.
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It had missed payments to lessors, grounded aircraft, and failed to pay staff, triggering mass protests. Even Etihad's investment and a bailout plan led by SBI couldn't salvage the situation. The shutdown, India's largest aviation layoff, left over 22,000 employees in limbo. Jet's fall serves as a stark reminder: full-service carriers without robust financial buffers or adaptive models simply cannot survive in India's price-sensitive, high-volume environment. Air India's bumpy privatisation Air India itself was a chronic loss-maker under government control, bleeding over Rs 70,000 crore ($9.5 billion) in cumulative losses by 2021. In January 2022, the Tata Group took the controls, acquiring the airline through its subsidiary Talace Pvt. Ltd. for Rs 18,000 crore. This included an upfront payment of Rs 2,700 crore and the assumption of Rs 15,300 crore in debt. The rest, over Rs 61,000 crore, was parked in a government-run SPV. Privatisation was hailed as a bold reset. And to its credit, progress has been made. Air India has added 104 aircraft to its fleet since the takeover, revived long-grounded planes, and placed a historic order for 470 new jets in 2023. A $400 million retrofit plan is underway, and training academies for pilots and crew have been launched to match the growth tempo. On average, the airline expects one new aircraft delivery every six days in 2025. But the skies are far from smooth. In May 2024, Air India Express saw over 100 cabin crew report sick in protest against changes to pay structures, grounding over 300 flights and costing the airline Rs 100 crore. The DGCA stepped in with a show-cause notice, while the airline sacked, and later reinstated, 25 crew members. Just weeks before, Vistara, the Tata Group's joint venture with Singapore Airlines (now merged with Air India), faced a week-long meltdown, cancelling over 50 flights a day due to a pilot shortage. The trigger? New contracts slashing guaranteed flying hours, which pilots protested as salary cuts. The DGCA again intervened, demanding daily cancellation reports and a crew roster review. These twin labour crises expose a deeper issue: managing workforce expectations in a rapidly consolidating but historically fragmented aviation ecosystem. The Tata Group's plan was to integrate its four airline brands – Air India, Vistara, Air India Express, and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) – into two main brands: Air India (full-service) and Air India Express (low-cost). What next for Indian aviation? India is poised to become the world's third-largest aviation market by 2026, with a projected 1.3 billion passenger trips by 2040, according to Airports Council International (ACI). But scale without stability could be -- and is usually -- a dangerous proposition. The ecosystem remains under strain: insufficient maintenance capacity, skilled worker shortages, regulatory bottlenecks, and weak consumer protections plague the industry. For passengers, the pain is already visible. Fewer aircraft mean more cancellations, higher fares, and longer delays. For airlines, the road ahead will require more than capital: it will need realism. Operational discipline, a safety-first culture, financial prudence, and labour empathy must become the new cockpit instruments.
